Wallowa Mountain Institute

Abstract:

Wallowa Resources is focused on land and community stewardship – the opportunity to fulfill our responsibilities to land, community and future generations, and enjoy the resulting benefits. It is synonymous with husbandry, care and conservation. Within our work, it requires the integration of social, economic and ecological issues to identify and implement strategies that will conserve cultural and biological diversity, promote sustainable use, and ensure the equitable distribution of benefits. To this end, Wallowa Resources has created the Wallowa Mountain Institute (WMI) as an educational model for how rural areas create, access, share and use knowledge to benefit the community and environment. It encompasses multiple experiential learning opportunities, institutional partnerships and knowledge sharing networks. WMI uses technology to its strategic advantage including remote library access, internet, distance learning, and online delivery of knowledge and classes. Programs will include a K-12 program with multiple learning opportunities ranging from awareness to research, college-level courses and research opportunities, public seminars, and field trips offered through The Nature Conservancy, Elderhostel, other national and regional organizations, and universities. The central organizing theme for Wallowa Mountain Institute is stewardship, including the creation of a land and community stewardship ethic and an understanding of stewardship knowledge and practice. Stewardship occupies this central position because it is an integrative process by which we come to understand the complex nature of the working landscape. WMI teaches people how to understand, appreciate and value their place, explore it, research it, learn from others and apply what they learn. Once these knowledge processes are cultivated, learned and applied, they become a critical way of thinking about and knowing the world.